Thumbnail problem

[CavOk]

I've just downloaded and installed the freeware EFA Typhoon from Virtavia (Alpha) and I notice that the thumbnails don't show in the menu screen. I also see that although there are a few models and variations they lack individual texture folders but all share a common texture folder and the thumbnails are referenced in the aircraft cfg file like this ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail0.jpg. The thumbnails themselves are located in the main folder along with the usual model, sound, texture and other files.
How do I make the thumbnails appear?

[Tako_Kichi]

It sounds like the Typhoon is an old FS2004 one and not a true FSX aircraft. FS2004 didn't use thumbnail images and so P3D can't find one to display.

To make a thumbnail image take a screenshot of the aircraft and then resize it to 256x128 pixels and name it 'thumbnail.jpg' and put it into the aircraft's correct texture folder. Repeat for all the other texture folders (making sure you put the correct thumbnail image in the correct folder).

[CavOk]

It sounds like the Typhoon is an old FS2004 one and not a true FSX aircraft. FS2004 didn't use thumbnail images and so P3D can't find one to display.

To make a thumbnail image take a screenshot of the aircraft and then resize it to 256x128 pixels and name it 'thumbnail.jpg' and put it into the aircraft's correct texture folder. Repeat for all the other texture folders (making sure you put the correct thumbnail image in the correct folder).

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. The model and thumbnails work perfectly in FSX and models also work in Prepar3d. But the thumbnails don't show. The file wrapper is unusual in that there is only one texture folder which covers all of the variations so the usual method of producing thumbnails and placing them in separate texture folders isn't possible.
If anyone knows a solution I'd like to hear of it.
Mike

[GypsyBaron]

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. The model and thumbnails work perfectly in FSX and models also work in Prepar3d. But the thumbnails don't show. The file wrapper is unusual in that there is only one texture folder which covers all of the variations so the usual method of producing thumbnails and placing them in separate texture folders isn't possible.
If anyone knows a solution I'd like to hear of it.
Mike

A quick and dirty way around this would be to create texture.xxxxx folders for each of the unique paints and put a texture.cfg file in each one that
pointed back to the main texture folder. Put the thumbnails in those dummy texture.xxxxx folders and edit the aircraft.cfg file for each entry
to point to the appropriate texture.xxxxx folder. xxxx, of course, would be the name you assign for a particular paint. So the new folders
would just have the cfg files and thumbnails in them. No need to copy any texture files.

Crude, but it should work.

Paul

[fsafranek]

Another way is to put all the thumbnails in the root folder of the aircraft where the "aircraft.cfg" and various "EFT v2.air" files are. First name them each differently like "thumbnail1.jpg", "thumbnail2.jpg", "thumbnail3.jpg", and so on. Then in the individual "[fltsim.x]" sections of "aircraft.cfg" you include a line like this:

ui_thumbnailfile=thumbnail1.jpg

The single folder for all textures was just how Carl Edwards did things when he was selling his aircraft through Alphasim way back when. Mal998 and I broke the whole thing down into individual texture folders for FSX when Phil was considering porting it over to FSX. I don't know if that was kept when it was released as freeware.
:ernae:

[Lionheart]

This is how I used to do all of mine as well, naming them through the aircraft config registries, all grouped in the main aircraft folder of that plane, not in the texture folders.


Here is another route you can take. This time, pull each JPG into its corresponding folder. Rename each one 'thumbnail.jpg'. This is the early stock way that FSX handles them. The newest version of P3 'might' have reverted things, but on my rig, they all still work.

Next, check to make sure it is the right size. They must be 256 X 128, or 512 X 256, etc. If they are off by one pixel, they will not show up.


Whats cool about naming them in the registries is that you can have multiple JPG's for single textures; such as a tail dragger, sea plane, and tri-cycle landing gear for a single texture, thus eliminating 3 texture folders and saving room.



Bill

[CavOk]

Hi Guys
I've tried these ideas and they don't work for me in Prepar3d. I think the user interface has a lot to do with it perhaps the next version will make things work. Meantime I think the only answer is to create texture folders for each variation and that will mean unscrambling the texture files and adding thumbnails as per usual.
Thanks again

Mike

[CavOk]

A quick and dirty way around this would be to create texture.xxxxx folders for each of the unique paints and put a texture.cfg file in each one that
pointed back to the main texture folder. Put the thumbnails in those dummy texture.xxxxx folders and edit the aircraft.cfg file for each entry
to point to the appropriate texture.xxxxx folder. xxxx, of course, would be the name you assign for a particular paint. So the new folders
would just have the cfg files and thumbnails in them. No need to copy any texture files.

Crude, but it should work.

Paul

Hi Paul
Thanks for the info, at first I tried an alias command line in the dummy texture cfg file and of course it didn't work. Using this command line "fallback.1=..\texture" it does work.
Thanks Paul I got there in the end.
Best wishes
Mike